Holder for supporting doors to be treated

ABSTRACT

An upright support member includes at least one laterally extending arm at the upper end thereof. This arm supports upright rails having adjustable hanger brackets thereon. The hanger brackets support door support plates capable of having doors to be treated mounted thereon by hinges whereby the door can be treated on both sides by hinged movement of the door. The door mounting plate can have screw holes that match hinge screw holes whereby to provide substitute hinges for supporting the doors thereon. By means of such structure, a process of painting a series of doors is available wherein the doors are disconnected from their hinges, the hinges being left on the cabinets. Door matching hinges are used and according to the system care does not have to be taken for painting the hinges.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a novel holder for supporting doors to betreated.

Various methods of refinishing doors, such as the painting of cabinetdoors or passageway doors are followed. For example, the doors are leftin place which means that the painter has to be very careful to avoidthe hinges and other cabinet parts. Also, in this case, it is difficultto reach all the edges of the door. In another method, the doors areremoved for convenience in painting but this means that the door must beleaned up against something or laid flat with the result that one sidemust be allowed to dry before painting the other side. This applies aswell to new doors to be mounted.

Devices have heretofore been provided in an effort to speed up paintingor treating of doors. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,164,011 and5,090,648 are concerned with an upright standard with right angle topand bottom arms that support a door vertically by upper and lower pinsthat penetrate the top and bottom edges of the door whereby the door canbe rotated to paint or treat both sides without waiting for one side todry. U.S. Pat. No. 1,581,960 shows a somewhat similar structure whereinportions of the support structure penetrate the door. In all of thesepatents, damage results to the doors which requires repair of the holes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide improvements onexisting structures of the type that hold doors to be painted.

Another object is to provide a holder of the type described thatutilizes hinges for support of the door whereby to conveniently allowthe door to be swung for painting both sides and edges and at the sametime assuring a positive support of the door.

Another important objective of the invention comprises the provision ofhinge screw holes in a door support plate which match the pattern ofhinge screw holes in a door to be treated, and utilizing substitutehinge means having pre-drilled and tapped screw holes that match thehinge screw holes in the door wherein the door can be treated while saidsubstitute hinge means are mounted thereon and support the door on thedoor support means for hinged movement, such hinge mounting meansfacilitating fast painting of both sides of doors, such as cabinetdoors, and without defacing original hinges.

In carrying out the objects of the invention, upright support meansincludes at least one vertical rail thereon. Door support means areintegral with vertically adjustable hanger brackets on the verticalrails. Substitute hinge means are provided on the door support means fortemporarily attaching doors thereto. Doors can thus be supported inupright relation and capable of being hingedly adjusted for treatingboth sides thereof as well as the edges. In one important use of thepresent invention, hinge screw holes in the door support means can beprovided that match the pattern of hinge screw holes in the door to betreated and then substitute hinges can be applied that have screw holesalso matching the hinge screw holes in the door to be treated. The doorcan then be supported and treated with the substitute hinges supportingit for hinged movement and a capability of being treated on both sidesthereof. The original hinges thus remain on the cabinet or otherstructure and the door can be treated such as painting without fear ofmarring said original hinges.

The invention will be better understood and additional objects andadvantages will become apparent from the following description taken inconnection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the holder for supporting doors to betreated according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the holder,

FIGS. 3 and 4 are exploded perspective views showing the holder ingreater detail and also showing different sizes thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With particular reference to the drawings, the holder of the inventioncomprises upright support 10 means including two or more laterallyextending arms 12 in an X shape and integral end vertical rails 14.

The vertical rails 14 are associated with door holder devices 16comprising C-shaped hanger brackets 20 that have telescoping engagementwith the rails. In a preferred construction, the vertical rails 14 havea rectangular or other non-round configuration in cross section, and thehanger brackets 20 are similarly shaped in their interior to slidablyand non-rotatably engage the rails. As seen in FIGS. 2-4, the slots 22in the back wall of C-shaped brackets 20 allow the brackets to bebrought down over the top of the rails and removed similarly by slippingthem up over the top.

Each of the hanger brackets 20 has a door support plate 24 integraltherewith which is parallel with the elongated dimension of the bracketbut offset therefrom a short distance by an arm 26. The brackets 20 andthe door attaching plates 24 have a set screw 21 threaded therein whichis capable upon tightening of locking the brackets in verticallyadjusted positions.

Door support plates 24 have means 28, such as tapped holes preferablyadjacent their outer free ends for receiving substitute hinges 30capable of supporting doors to be treated while they are attached to theplates. These plates may comprise wood into which substitute hinges 30can be secured for connection to the doors to be supported on the doormounting plate. Preferably, however, the door support plates are metaland have pre-drilled and tapped screw holes with the same pattern ofscrew holes as the original hinges for mounted connection of the door tothe holder for instant mounting on the plates.

The vertical dimension of the door support plates 24 may vary, as seenin FIG. 1 to accommodate selected height doors. The holder can supportmultiple small doors D1 on one upright 14 or if desired it can support asingle larger door D2. Two or more hanger brackets may be used for thelarger door. Brackets of various sizes can be substituted one foranother by sliding them off the top and replacing them by another.

In addition to providing generally a hinged support of doors forpainting both sides, the door support plates can have one or more setsof screw holes and substitute hinges 30 maintained in a stock supplythat match these various screw holes. By using a series of screw holesin the door support plates that match hinge patterns and having a stocksupply of hinges for matching the hinge pattern, the following novelprocess of treating hinge type doors can be carried out. It is assumedthat a plurality of doors, such as kitchen cabinet doors havingidentical hinge patterns are to be painted. The first step is to removethe door from their hinges, namely, the original hinges will remain onthe cabinet. Thereupon, substitute hinges 30 which are kept in stock canbe matched to the pattern of hinges that were on the door. In turn, thedoor support plate has the same hinge pattern whereby the door can bemounted on the support plate with the substitute hinges. By thisprocess, the door can be painted without concern of painting theoriginal cabinet hinges. After the door has been painted the substitutehinges are removed and the door re-installed on its original hinges thatstill remain on the cabinet. Such a process saves considerable timebecause care does not have to be taken of the hinges during the sandingand painting. The present holder also allows both sides and edges to bepainted without handling the door.

By this process, it is also feasible to provide the substitute hinges ofa size smaller than the hinges remaining on the cabinets because thearea of treatment around the substitute hinges will then be covered bythe larger original hinges when the door is re-installed.

The upright support means 10 may be supported by a bottom stand 32having a cup portion 34 that forms a seat for the bottom end of thestand. That is, the outer dimension around the vertical rails 14 and theinterior of the cup portion 34 are such that the latter will snuglyreceive the upright portion. A collar 36 is slidably fitted on thestandard above the cup portion and has supporting legs 38. The cupportion 34 is suspended from the legs 38 by links 40 that have pivotconnections 42 with side walls of the cup portion and with the legs atan intermediate portion of the latter. The legs 38 have horizontal pivotconnections 44 at their upper ends with the collar 36. The uprightsupport means 10 can be supported on a wall or hung from the ceilinginstead of using a bottom stand 32.

The sliding collar 36, the cup portion 34, and the links 40 and pivotconnections 42 and 44 allow the stand to fold and unfold. In thevertical support position of the holder, the collar is raised a selecteddistance on the standard which pulls the legs inward to provide angledsupport as shown in FIG. 1. For folding the stand, the sliding collar 36is raised to pull the legs fully inward parallel with the support means10 which compacts the stand for shipment and storage.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herein shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example of the same and thatvarious changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may beresorted to without departing from the spirit of my invention, or thescope of the subjoined claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:
 1. A holder for supportingdoors to be treated comprising:upright support means having upper andlower ends, said upright support means including at least one verticalrail, hanger bracket means supported on said at least one vertical railfor vertical adjustment, door support means on said hanger bracketmeans, and hinge means on said door support means for temporarilyattaching a door to be treated to said door support means wherein thedoor is supported in upright relation and is hingedly movable fortreating both sides thereof.
 2. The holder of claim 1 wherein saidhanger bracket means is removably mounted at the upper end of said atleast one vertical rail for substituting one of said hanger bracketmeans for another.
 3. The holder of claim 1 including set screw means onsaid hanger bracket means engageable with said at least one verticalrail for adjusting the supported height of said hanger bracket means onsaid at least one vertical rail.
 4. The holder of claim 1 wherein saidhanger bracket means comprises a C-shaped socket with slidabletelescoping engagement on said at least one vertical rail for saidvertical adjustment.
 5. The holder of claim 4 including set screw meanson said hanger bracket means engageable with said at least one verticalrail for adjusting the supported height of said hanger bracket means onsaid at least one vertical rail.
 6. A holder for supporting doors to betreated which have hinge screw holes therein for hingedly mounting thedoor on a door frame, comprising,upright support means having upper andlower ends, said upright support means including at least one laterallyextending arm, said at least one arm terminating at an outer end thereofin a vertical rail, at least one hanger bracket on said vertical rail,door support means on said at least one hanger bracket, hinge screwholes in said door support means matching a pattern of hinge screw holesin a door that is to be treated and hingedly mounted on a door frame,and substitute hinge means having screw holes matching the hinge screwholes in the door to be treated, wherein the door can be treated withsaid substitute hinge means mounted thereon and supporting it on saiddoor support means in upright relation for hinged movement and treatmenton both sides of the door.
 7. The holder of claim 6 including aplurality of laterally extending arms, vertical rails, hanger brackets,and door support means.
 8. The holder of claim 6 wherein said at leastone hanger bracket is vertically adjustable on said vertical rail. 9.The holder of claim 6 wherein said at least one hanger bracket isremovably mounted at the upper end of said vertical rail forsubstituting hanger brackets one for another.
 10. The holder of claim 6wherein said at least one hanger bracket is vertically adjustable onsaid vertical rail, and set screw means on said at least one hangerbracket engageable with said vertical rail for adjusting the supportedheight of said at least one hanger bracket on said rail.
 11. The holderof claim 6 wherein said at least one hanger bracket includes a C-shapedsocket with slidable telescoping engagement on said vertical rail forvertical adjustment.
 12. The holder of claim 11 including set screwmeans on said at least one hanger bracket engageable with said verticalrail for adjusting the supported height of said at least one hangerbracket on said vertical rail.